Several members of the Cook County Community Center Steering Committee and School District 166 staff toured the west wing of the school with Architect Dan Miller of JLG Architects on Friday, June 8. At this stop in the locker room, the group discussed how a YMCA and the school could share the space. The architect hopes to have drawings of the plan to attach the community center to the school at a July 12 meeting.
At 8 a.m. on Wednesday, June 6, 2012, members of the Cook County Community Steering Committee returned to the Jane Mianowski conference room at Cook County High School where they had gathered the night before for a public input meeting. At the morning meeting, the committee talked about ways to address citizen concerns heard the night before.
Fundraising premature?
County Commissioner Bruce Martinson asked if it was time for the YMCA or the county to accept membership pledges. Martinson said he thought some citizen concerns would be allayed if a significant number of pledges came in before the project went any further.
Community Center Director Diane Booth concurred. She said if pledges were received, it would reassure people.
Duluth YMCA CEO Chris Francis said membership applications could be sent out but said he felt it was premature. He said when the time comes for fundraising, the YMCA would assist and would create professional marketing materials for distribution.
Fundraising came up later in the meeting, when discussion turned to what the “name” of the new facility should be. The committee agreed that it was too early to definitely say what the name will be, but under consideration is “Cook County Family YMCA.” CEO Francis said it would be easier to market the center once a name has been determined. He said someone could still receive naming rights for the building, but only for a “very large” donation.
“Remember, there are also rooms to be named,” said Francis, joking, “Heck, you could name an office chair if you want to give money.”
Feasibility study?
School Board Member Jeanne Anderson said in response to repeated citizen requests for a feasibility study on the use of the community center and its financial viability, she could compile the information obtained to date into a feasibility study format. “I think we’ve done a lot of the work. We have a lot of information. The piece that is missing is that it’s not all put together.”
Anderson volunteered to work with Diane Booth on creating a feasibility study document. Steering Committee Chair Paul Sporn said his concern was that a great deal of time and energy would be spent on compiling the information and it would still not be accepted by those who are opposed to the community center proposal.
Recently appointed Steering Committee Member Gene Glader said he would like to see Anderson put together “some kind of feasibility statement.” Anderson said she had been asked to collect information for her school board colleagues anyway. The steering committee moved to authorize Anderson and Booth to summarize the information into a feasibility study format.
At the public meeting the night before, Commissioner Bruce Martinson had reminded the public that a study had been done by Ballard King & Associates in 2009, at the request of the county’s consulting firm at that time, LHB Corporation. Booth replied that the Ballard King report looked at a national picture of community center complexes. Booth said she had reviewed her notes on the study and it was based on a much larger community center. “It wasn’t a full-blown feasibility study, but it gave us a starting point,” Booth said at the June 5 meeting.
Booth said if the committee wanted, she could approach a colleague at the University of MN to see if one of his graduate students could complete a study of potential membership numbers. Commissioner Sue Hakes said she didn’t think it was necessary, because the county had the YMCA studies.
Funding for Industrial Technology?
The steering committee once again discussed a new proposal— to expand and enhance the Industrial Arts space in the school while other construction is under way. Chair Sporn asked if 1 percent recreation and infrastructure tax funds could be used for this. He noted that students could use an improved shop area during the school day and community members could use it at night.
Commissioner Martinson said that was intriguing and said, “We could maybe squeeze it in there with the 1 percent funding.”
Commissioner Fritz Sobanja said there probably is not enough 1 percent sales tax funding for the project but he said there might be other ways to pay for the restoration of the Industrial Tech area, such as through state job programs. “As a county, we could throw $50,000 to $100,000 at something like this. The county can make contributions to other government entities,” he added.
Commissioner Sue Hakes said people have sent her brochures from community centers across the United States. She said one from Arizona had a woodworking area in their community center. “People have asked for that,” she said.
Sporn said Dan Miller of JLG Architects was coming Friday, June 8, to look at the school before drafting a proposal for attaching the community center complex to the school building. The committee agreed to talk to Miller about designing an expanded shop area during his upcoming visit. “There are a lot of questions to be answered,” said Sporn.
The committee looked at the sketch of the west end of the school building provided by Superintendent Beth Schwarz and identified issues they wanted the architect to consider.
Outdoor hockey ice was discussed and it was agreed that the hockey rink should not be held up any longer. The steering committee passed a motion asking the county board to move ahead with the ice rink as soon as possible.
Several members of the steering committee participated in the walk-through of the west end of the School District 166 campus, the current Community Center and the grounds with Architect Dan Miller on Friday, June 8. The purpose of the visit was to provide the architect information necessary to develop a plan for a community center attached to the school building.
It is hoped that Miller will have plans for the steering committee to review at its July 12 meeting, which will be held in the commissioner’s room at the Cook County courthouse from 2 – 5 p.m. Another community meeting for input will be held that evening from 6 – 8 p.m. in the Mianowski conference room at Cook County High School.
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